Lotus Fires CEO Bahar

Group Lotus says it has fired CEO Dany Bahar after investigating a complaint about his conduct from DRB-Hicom Bhd, the company's Malaysian owner.

The company did not give a specific reason for his dismissal. Bahar was suspended two weeks ago when DRB expressed concerns following a review of Lotus operations and finances by outside consultants.

Lotus has appointed Aslam Farikullah, who has headed vehicle engineering at DRB, as chief operating officer.

Bahar, who joined Lotus from Ferrari in 2009, was halfway through his ambitious five-year plan to turn around the British sports car maker, which hasn't made a profit in at least 15 years. Lotus aimed to add five new models and quadruple annual sales to 8,000 units. The company secured 270 million (€334 million) in financing last year to help fund the product program.

Lotus has been owned since 1994 by Malaysian carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd., which tried unsuccessfully to tap the U.K. firm's formidable engineering expertise for its own vehicles. Proton blames its own plunging profits on the high cost of vehicle development at Lotus.

When DRB bought a controlling stake in Proton in January, it said it would be open to selling Lotus. But DRB declared last month that is committed to keeping the British unit.